Brea's Birthday

We like the summer. No school, warm weather, lots of outdoor fun, and time to celebrate birthday's! Brea celebrated her 2nd Birthday. We realized that this is the first time we have had a two year old that is still the BABY! We have alsways had a newborn when our older one was two. We have thoroughly enjoyed letting Brea be our baby. She is still quite petite, especially compared to our other children, so it is easy to treat her as the baby.

I think she is starting to realize that she is two. With that age comes the need to be independent! She wants to do everything herself. Some things she can do, but some she cannot and that makes her really mad. She has quite the determination, it seems as though all our kids have that. I just remind myself that someday that quality will be quite useful in their lives.

We celebrated her special day with presents, cake, ice cream, and some fun family time. She has a very sweet tooth, so the cake and especially the ice cream were were the hit of the day.

Our now two year old Brea has decided that she want to go "potty" like her brother and sister. I say, she has decided, becasue I did not push it on her at all. She takes off her own pants and diaper (we have been using cloth diapers, and I think she is anxious to get out of them!) She tells me when she needs to go, sometimes before and sometimes after she has gone. I am letting her set the pace, some days are better than others. In fact today, it is now almost 2:00 and she has been dry all day. Way to go Brea. It is so nice when they want to do it instead of forcing it on them. I was fine waiting a bit longer, but this works too.

A few things Brea enjoys these days: Her favorite toys are babies. She holds them, feeds them, buckles them up in her booster seat to eat, carries them in a carseat. She loves holding her babies. Anytime she goes anywhere else to play (nursury at church, friends houses) she always ends up with a baby.

She also loves to shut the door! I know it sounds weird, but she does. Whenever anyone goes out the front door and leaves it open (such as going to get the mail or grab something out of the car) they can plan on the door being shut when they get back. When we open it Brea is there laughing so hard, as if she just pulled the best prank. It is quite humurous. Also if the kids leave the back door open when they go play outside (which happens a lot) she will always go close it. If someone else tries to she gets pretty upset.

She loves talking on the phone and will blab on and on and never give the phone to anyone else.

One thing she does not enjoy are dogs. We are not sure why, but she gets so scared. Even if the dog is a tiny cute little thing. She will scream at th top of her lungs and leap for an adult. Poor thing, I hope she can outgrow this.

We love our Brea. She is really a cute little girl. She has brought so much joy and laughter to our family. It is so fun to hear her communicating so well now. She repeats everything and comes up with some good little sentences on her own. She always uses her manners when she talks, which is so precious. "Mom, milk please" is a common one!

Happy Birthday Brea